Friday, July 10, 2009

Really Cool Time Capsule in Qunicy Mass.

The WickedLocal.com out of Qunicy Massachusetts reports on a fascinating time capsule.

Whoever finds a time capsule that will be buried on Saturday will need to dust off an old computer to view what’s inside.

The capsule, which will be buried at the Abigail Adams Cairn on Penn’s Hill, will contain portable flash drives and CDs that contain scans of historical documents and video messages.

The formats may be outdated by the time the items are unearthed, but those involved in assembling the capsule aren’t too concerned about it.


The place of burial for the copper time capsule will be where Abigail Adams and 7-year-old John Quincy Adams watched the Battle of Bunker Hill in 1775. On that spot in 1896, the Adams chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution buried their own capsule which was recently discovered.

The 1896 capsule contained yellowed newspapers, a book, a poem, and other documents. The new capsule will contain colorful brochures about Quincy’s history created by fourth-graders and several documents that were scanned and loaded onto a portable hard drive and burned to CD. It will also include print and electronic copies of The Patriot Ledger with stories about the cairn and its hidden treasure.

As FatWhiteMan pointed out once, a proper time capsule needs to be in the ground for a good while in order to have the greatest impact. I think these qualify.

What do you think? Why are they always made out of copper anyway?

Please leave a comment.

2 comments:

  1. "Why are they always made out of copper anyway?"

    I'm hardly schooled in science but I would imagine that it is because copper doesn't rust. Think copper plumbing that can hold water for decades.

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  2. I would expect stainless steel or some new space-age plastic.

    This one was great with that connection to the Adamses, wasn't it?

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